


Between A Nexu And Her Young

by idrilhadhafang



Series: Take Me Back To The Start [1]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Awesome Leia Organa, BAMF Leia Organa, Badass Amilyn Holdo, Canon-Typical Violence, Dead Snoke (Star Wars), Evil Snoke, Except Snoke, Fix-It, Gen, Jedi Leia Organa, Leia Organa Deserves Better, Leia Organa-centric, Mama Bear Leia Organa, Mentioned Ben Solo, Mentioned Dameron Family, Minor Leia Organa/Han Solo, POV Leia Organa, Protective Everyone, Protective Leia Organa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:41:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21926884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: Leia Organa makes a different choice.
Relationships: Leia Organa & Everyone
Series: Take Me Back To The Start [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1579156
Kudos: 14
Collections: Genprompt Bingo Round 17





	Between A Nexu And Her Young

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Wild Card — Fix-Its
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Author’s Notes: Because Leia Organa did deserve better.

“There’s something out there.”  
  
Even sitting out on the porch with Luke long after her training’s done (Shara’s babysitting Ben. At least the Damerons seem to like Ben, especially Poe), Leia already feels a sort of dread settling over her just thinking about it. That presence — it had just felt so _hot,_ like the sweltering feeling Leia got from the beating heat of Jabba’s sail barge. Only it felt worse than that, because the evil in that presence, the rage...Leia could swear that she was all but battered with it.   
  
Luke nods. “I know. I didn’t want to think it, but...I have a feeling that our fight against the Empire didn’t end at Jakku. Beings can die, but beliefs...those aren’t so easy to destroy. You can’t kill the concept of evil.”  
  
Leia can’t argue there. “I think it’s after Ben. I’d come home from work and...he’d be crying and pointing at the corner of his room. It’d be easy to just think it was the boogeyman, but I swear I could feel like something was in the room with us. Even if I turned on the light and nothing was there.”   
  
Luke goes still. “You think it wants to kill him?”  
  
 _It._ Leia supposes that pronoun is enough to describe the entity. It doesn’t feel like a person. A being. It feels like an entity in its own right. “I don’t know,” Leia says. “It...hasn’t really been forthcoming with its motive. It doesn’t matter, though. Luke...I can’t just be useless. I’ve got to do something, but I can’t leave Ben.” A beat. “Unless...”  
  
***  
  
Threepio’s more than willing to look after Ben, stars bless him. Shara leaves Poe with Threepio as well; she’s just as angry at the idea of something after Ben as Han is. Kes too.   
  
“Enfys is on her way,” Han said. “Think she just wants to raise some hell. And stars, I know Lando’s not gonna miss it for the galaxy.”  
  
Leia bites her lip. She thought that no one else would believe her. But they love Ben, with all their hearts, and the entity clearly underestimated all of them when it targeted Ben. _Not only evil but suicidally stupid,_ Leia thinks. Which is good to know. It’s reassuring that evil can be stupid sometimes. At least it gives them a fighting chance.   
  
“Thank you,” she says.   
  
Han grins. “I’d damn the galaxy if my little bandit was safe,” he says. “That’s obvious, ain’t it?”  
  
***  
  
Locating the entity is a matter of relying on old skills. Leia remembers when she found Luke hanging from the bottom of Cloud City, wounded. It had been almost like she simply knew. And now...well, the entity has a name. _Snoke._ Almost a disappointing name for an entity of such power. Whose presence feels like Tatooine’s scorching suns. Of course, Leia knows he’s in the Unknown Regions on a ridiculously big ship — the _Supremacy._ At least she can say that his ego’s obscenely bloated. The ship’s as big as his ego.   
  
They don’t waste any time. And when the _Supremacy_ pulls them into a tractor beam, Leia knows that it’s just as planned.   
  
***  
  
“I’ve been waiting for you, Jedi Organa.”  
  
Even as Snoke looks at her, seeming all but perched on his throne like a Jakku bird, there’s something terribly off about him. Leia can’t put her finger on it. He’s just...off. Still, she holds his gaze. She’ll be damned if she’s intimidated by this monster. She’s faced off against Tarkin and her beast of a father. She can handle this.   
  
“I can imagine,” Leia says. “You’re less intimidating in the flesh than you are in the Force. That why you couldn’t come out and face us earlier? You thought no one would take you seriously?”  
  
Snoke actually laughs. Leia almost wants to strangle him. “You’re quite amusing...for a traitorous insect I could crush in an instant.”  
  
“You can try,” Leia says. “What you’re doing to my son ends here, Snoke...with your death.”  
  
Snoke sneers at her. “You are no Jedi,” he says. “You bear the name of Jedi, you carry the weapon of a Jedi, but a true Jedi? Never. Not with the hate and anger inside you. Just ask the traitor Calrissian...isn’t that right, Calrissian?”  
  
Lando's stiff with fury. Fury and embarrassment. Leia turns to him, nods. She already forgives him. Lando made a stupid mistake, but he wouldn’t have done it if he didn’t love his people. This she knows.   
  
Snoke continues. “Vader was correct about you when he said you would turn. He saw into your spirit, the hatred you carry in your core. Woven through you.”  
  
Leia goes still. And Luke speaks up, his voice quiet with fury. “You won’t have any of my family.”  
  
“I already have,” Snoke says. “If you think you can alter the destiny that Ben Solo has, you’re mistaken.”  
  
There’s so much anger in Leia. So much of it, threatening to boil over. One wrong move, and she could fall. One misstep, and she’d become like her father. Like she’s somehow possessed by his spirit. Still, she faces Snoke.   
  
“We won’t let you,” Leia says. “Everything I do, I do for my son. And I didn’t join the Empire then. I won’t join it now.”  
  
Snoke sneers. He gets up from his throne. Leia wonders, idly, how someone so frail and battered-looking would be able to hold up in a fight. Still, looks can be deceiving. He draws his weapon...not a lightsaber, but something else, an odd staff.   
  
“There are greater entities in this galaxy than Jedi or Sith,” Snoke said. “You could say I’m one of them.” A beat. “Shall we call this duel a bargain, then? For Ben Solo? My master and I should have realized a nexu would do anything to protect her young.”  
  
The red armored guards around Snoke raise their weapons.  
  
“Deal with the others,” Snoke orders them. “Jedi Organa is mine.”  
  
Leia draws her saber, and they duel. Snoke is frail-looking, but he is undeniably skilled — looks can indeed be deceiving. Leia has to remember her training to stay out of the way of his swinging staff.   
  
“You seem so surprised,” Snoke muses. “Of course you are. My enemies in the past saw me as weak and frail, easy to beat. It made their deaths all the sweeter.”  
  
Leia glares at him. “But you’re not invincible,” she says.   
  
“Oh, foolish Jedi,” Snoke says. “You will learn. And you will pay dearly for interfering with the will of the Dark.”  
  
They pull no punches. Leia winces, but stumbles to her feet as Snoke blasts her across the room with Force Lightning. She doesn’t think anything’s broken, and even if she did, it doesn’t matter. She has to keep fighting. If she loses, they lose Ben. They lose everything.   
  
An idea comes to her, and she hurls her lightsaber at Snoke’s head.   
  
Even as the blade connects with his neck, severs his head, Leia knows that the fight isn’t over. The red armored guards go down, as do the figures in cloaks. And Leia can feel, outside, something else.   
  
Amilyn’s brought her fleet.   
  
Leia turns to Han, whose arm is bleeding, and places a hand over the cut. She is tired, but she pours her Force energy into healing the cut nonetheless. Han grins, a bit blearily at her. “Guess that Force mumbo-jumbo has its uses,” he says.   
  
Leia snorts. “Watch it, nerfherder.”  
  
She goes around, she and Luke seeing to the others. They’re exhausted, battered, bruised...but very, very alive. Leia has a feeling it isn’t over, but at least, she’s weakened the force that’s after her son.   
  
They have to fight off soldiers and stormtroopers on the way to the Falcon. Those fall too. Getting in the Falcon is easy, and when Amilyn expresses relief that they made it, Leia smiles faintly. “Finish them off, Amilyn.”  
  
“That’s the plan.”  
  
The fleet erupts in balls of fire. It’s sad, in some ways; after all, some of them have to have been tricked. Promised glory, only to be lied to. But in the end, Leia knows it’s for the best, even as they head back into hyperspace. (Leia supposes she’ll hear about how Amilyn got here later)  
  
For now, Ben is safe.   
  
For now, Ben can sleep.


End file.
